Asian Nations Plan Trade Bloc That, Unlike U.S.’s, Invites
China
[1] Ten Southeast Asian nations said Tuesday that they would begin negotiating a sweeping trade pact that
would include China and five of the region’s other major trading partners, but not the United States. The
proposal for the new trade bloc, to be known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, is
enthusiastically embraced by China. The founding members, who belong to the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, said at the close of the association’s summit meeting that the bloc would cover nearly half of the
world’s population, starting in 2015. The new grouping is seen as a rival to a trade initiative of the Obama
administration, the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes many of the same countries but
excludes China. The announcement came as China was facing pressure to back down from its hard-line stance
in its disputes with four Southeast Asian countries over ownership of islands in the South China Sea. Five
nations at the summit meeting, including Singapore and Indonesia, demanded changes related to the issue in
two communiqués that were drafted by Cambodia, the host of the meeting and an ally of China with no claim
to the islands, according to a statement issued by Singapore. The initial draft of one of the communiqués,
intended for the association to issue, said that its members, by consensus, did not want the South China Sea
issue to be “internationalized” — meaning that the United States and other countries with interests in the
security of the sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes, would have no say in the rules of the body of water.
China said Monday that such a consensus existed. But the Philippines, an ally of the United States, publicly
protested China’s position, and was joined Tuesday by Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam.

▷문장분석
⑴접속사 as, 과거시제와 과거진행형, to 부정사의 형용사적 용법
Farmers are more severely hobbled as the government’s subsidies fall down more sharply.
As the addresses of some criminals were made public, they were exposed to potential danger factors.
She devotes herself to translating English novels as did her father before he died.
He has no alternative but to step down as the prosecution is under heavy criticism.
In fact, the professor was running a paper company as he acted as if he were a national hero.
South Korea is not a county to invade its citizens’ privacy.
If ordinary people cannot find any political leader to rely on, they get easily frustrated.
A failing school unveiled its desire to attract top-class students.
The announcement came as China was facing pressure to back down from its hard-line stance in its disputes
with four Southeast Asian countries over ownership of islands in the South China Sea.

⑵to 부정사의 의미상 주어, 의도 혹은 목적을 나타내는 표현
The graduate school is intended to produce simultaneous interpreters.
Medical supplies are intended for an additional 7 million who are sick enough to need them.
What we really need is for people to understand that protecting human rights is not a political act.
If the international community allows North Korea to go nuclear, it will obviously try to flex its muscles.
The initial draft of one of the communiqués, intended for the association to issue, said that its members, by
consensus, did not want the South China Sea issue to be “internationalized” — meaning that the United States
and other countries with interests in the security of the sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes, would
have no say in the rules of the body of water.

[2] The final text of the communiqué omitted the reference to a consensus, the statement by Singapore said.
The second communiqué, for the concurrent East Asia Summit, left out any mention of the South China Sea in
the initial draft, even though the five members wanted the issue to be included. That communiqué, too, was
amended. In a direct criticism of China’s position on the South China Sea, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of
Singapore said at the East Asia Summit that he hoped the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China
would soon start formal talks on a code of conduct that would reduce the risk of conflict over the sea. China
has balked at such urgency. “Talks on a code of conduct will help manage the disputes and prevent conflict
which will be bad for everyone,” he said. The announcement of the proposed trade pact ended the talks on an
upbeat note, despite the underlying tensions between the proposal and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which
was announced last year as part of the Obama administration’s shift of focus toward Asia, the region with the
fastest-growing economy. One of the stops on President Obama’s just-completed trip to Asia was in Thailand,
in part to welcome its interest in joining the American-backed trade initiative, which has held more than a
dozen rounds of negotiations. China, on the other hand, has gone out of its way to express its support for the
new proposed bloc. Its members would be the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, plus 6 nations that have free-trade agreements with the association: Australia, China, India, Japan,
New Zealand and South Korea. “We uphold regional economic integration, and this is a way to fight against the
global financial crisis,” Fu Ying, a Chinese vice minister for foreign affairs, said of the proposal at a briefing in
Beijing last week, adding, “We will actively support the negotiating process.”

[3] Some analysts in Asia describe the Obama administration’s trade initiative as one element in a policy to
contain China, the world’s largest producer and exporter of manufactured goods. “China’s exclusion is strange,
given its huge economic presence in the Asia-Pacific” region, Amitendu Palit, a visiting senior research fellow at
the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, wrote in a recent edition of East
Asia Forum. “This has given rise to views that the United States is driving the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the
strategic objective of marginalizing China.” At the briefing in Beijing, Liang Wentao, an official of the Ministry of
Commerce, said that China had studied the proposed bloc backed by the United States and had concluded that
the bar for meeting its requirements was “very high.” He said China had not received an invitation to join it. Mr.
Obama alluded to it during a presidential debate, implying that one of its objectives was to set the standards
for entry above what China could now meet. “We’re organizing trade relations with countries other than China
so that China starts feeling more pressure about meeting basic international standards,” Mr. Obama said. One
criticism in Washington of the proposal supported by China is that countries need to do little to join and would
be allowed to continue practices like protecting state-run enterprises.